Cp^?0.7 


Union  sentiment  in  North  Carolina 

by  Mary  3.  Smith 


2tyr  Htbrarg 
Hnterfithj  of  Nartlj  (EaniHtta 


Gtallrrtum  of  North,  (Earoltniatta 
Cp9T0.7 


Was 
|  ■   . 


''•v:J.    |    '•  ■     ■  ■  1 


Series  9 


November,  1915 


Number  1 


Meredith  College 


Quarterly  Bulletin 


1915-1916 


Published  by  Meredith  College  in  November,  January,  March  and  May 

Entered  as  second-class  matter,  January  13,  1908,  at  the  post-office  at  Raleigh,  N.  C. 
under  the  act  of  Congress  of  July  16,  1894 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2013 


http://archive.org/details/unionsentimentinOOsmit 


MEREDITH  COLLEGE 


NOVEMBER,  1915 


Union  Sentiment  in  North  Carolina  During  the 
Civil  War 

Mary  Shannon  Smith, 

Department  of  History,  Meredith  College. 

(One  of  a  group  of  papers  read  at  the  Sixteenth  Annual  Session  of  the  State  Literary 
and  Historical  Association  at  a  meeting  in  tne  Hall  of  tne  House  of  Representatives  in 
commemoration  of  tne  Semi-Centennial  of  tne  close  of  tne  Civil  War,  November  ninth, 
1915.) 

Since  the  beginning  of  the  great  European  War,  we  have 
realized  anew  how  difficult  it  is  to  get  at  the  real  truth  of 
history,  and  that  most  events  that  bring  about  profound  changes 
have  various  elements  which  are  almost  impossible  to  analyze. 
Facts  may  be  recorded,  but  motives,  causes,  purposes — the  un- 
seen forces  of  thought  which  lie  back  of  all  the  rest — these  are 
more  elusive. 

In  any  country  under  stress  where  there  is  continued  una- 
nimity of  action  it  would  appear  to  come  from  strong  social  con- 
trol of  thought  and  conduct,  indifference,  ignorance,  or  some 
colossal  danger.  An  alert  and  thinking  people  are  in  time 
bound  to  differ. 

As  North  Carolina  has  always  stood  for  individualism,  and 
as  there  was  much  divergence  of  thought  down  to  the  war,  it 
would  be  most  unusual  if  the  outward  Act  of  Secession  in  April, 
1861,  would  for  long  make  the  minds  of  all  the  people  run  in  the 
same  channel,  although  the  sudden  shock  or  social  control 
might  for  a  time,  at  least,  make  them  appear  to  do  so.  One 
learns  to  make  allowances  on  both  sides  for  expressions  of  par- 
tisanship and  to  realize  that  usually  the  real  conditions  are  some- 
what different  from  the  strongly  emotional  contentions  of  either 
side.  For,  as  in  the  present  great  war,  any  divergence  of  feel- 
ing North  or  South  would  have  been  kept  as  far  as  possible 
within  the  lines  and  those  in  control  would  try  to  minimize  the 
divergence. 


4  Meredith  College  Bulletin. 

The  horrible  blunders  of  Congress  in  the  administration  of  the 
South  during  the  period  of  reconstruction,  which  compelled 
all  elements  of  the  people  to  unite,  have  largely  made  us  over- 
look the  different  state  of  mind  during  the  war  itself. 

This  paper  is  based  largely  on  the  files  of  the  Fayetteville 
Observer  from  July,  1853,  through  December,  1864,  and  on  three 
large  bound  volumes  of  "Hale  Papers"  from  1850  to  1865.  The 
Observer  until  the  outbreak  of  the  war  was  Whig  and  strongly 
Union ;  during  the  war  it  was  unfailingly  loyal  to  the  Southern 
cause,  and  from  the  election  of  Governor  Vance  in  1862  to  the 
close  of  the  war  it  particularly  represented  his  administration. 
The  paper  was  one  of  the  ablest  in  the  State  and  of  command- 
ing influence.  The  private  papers  comprise  a  large  number  of 
personal  letters,  many  of  them  confidential,  from  the  most  promi- 
nent men  in  the  State.  So  far  as  known  they  have  never  before 
been  read  except  by  the  Hale  family  and  at  the  office  of  the 
State  Historical  Commission.  Such  material  should  reflect 
most  unconsciously  and  therefore  accurately  the  prevailing  senti- 
ment of  the  State.  It  is  an  interesting  experience  in  studying 
a  momentous  period  in  history  to  forget  the  present  and  live 
again  with  those  who  are  recording  and  interpreting  the  events, 
especially  with  one  who  in  personality  and  training  looks  at  life 
in  a  large  way.  Such  an  interpreter  was  Edward  J.  Hale,  in 
the  pages  of  whose  paper  the  past  of  North  Carolina,  our  coun- 
try, and  the  world  live  again.  While  going  through  the  files 
of  these  papers,  the  writer  most  unexpectedly  had  the  pleasure 
of  meeting  Mr.  Edward  J.  Hale  2d,  of  Fayetteville,  now 
United  States  Minister  to  Costa  Rica.  He  said  that  the  Ob- 
server continued  to  be  printed  until  Johnston's  army  marched 
through  the  town.  It  was  then  for  a  time  suspended  and  the 
files  of  the  paper  hurriedly  buried.  The  private  papers  have 
at  different  times  been  through  fire,  water  and  smoke,  so  that 
numbers  of  them  are  somewhat  difficult  to  read  and  the  edges 
burned. 

On  April  15  of  1861  the  Fayetteville  Observer  carried  an  ad- 
vertisement from  Greensboro — Prospectus  of  the  "Stars  and 
Stripes."     This  was  to  be  a  three-months  campaign  paper  for 


Meredith  College  Bulletin.  5 

the  Union,  during  which  it  was  hoped  to  reach  "the  great  public 
ear  of  the  State."1 

In  the  same  issue  there  occurred  in  small  type  the  headline 
"Sensation  Dispatches."  Of  these  Mr.  Hale  says :  "But  the  odd- 
est part  of  the  affair  is  that  the  [Petersburg^  Express  should 
publish  this  dispatch  with  such  blood  and  thunder  heading  just 
above  the  'very  latest/  showing  that  the  story  was  an  arrant 
humbug."2 

But  farther  on  we  find,  "The  War  Commenced ! !"  "Bombard- 
ment of  Fort  Sumter ! ! !"  The  statements  at  first  are  hardly 
credited,  then  as  more  and  more  reports  come,  Mr.  Hale  says : 

"This  is  dreadful  news.  War  is  a  terrible  evil.  Civil  war  the  worst 
of  all  earthly  evils.  Nothing  but  dire  necessity  can  justify  it.  We 
are  too  imperfectly  advised  as  yet  of  the  causes  to  pronounce  de- 
cidedly whether  that  necessity  existed  in  this  case.  Let  us  wait 
for  something  more  definite  and  reliable  than  the  telegraph  fur- 
nishes.    *     *     * 

"Let  us  wait.  And  let  us  wait  long  before  we  unite  our  destinies 
with  those  of  a  people  who  have  ignored  us,  our  interests,  feelings, 
and  honor,  from  first  to  last.  If  we  should  be  impelled  to  separate 
from  the  Union,  let  us  take  care  of  ourselves."3 

In  the  issue  seven  days  later  we  are  shown  the  instantaneous 
and  thrilling  effect  of  Lincoln's  proclamation  calling  for  seventy- 
five  thousand  troops  and  asking  North  Carolina  to  send  her 
quota.  To  this  Governor  Ellis  replied :  "You  can  get  no  troops 
from  North  Carolina."  Mr.  Hale  in  an  editorial  says :  "Will 
she  do  it?  Ought  she  to  do  it?  Wo.  No.  Not  a  man  can  leave 
her  borders  upon  such  an  errand,  who  has  not  made  up  his 
mind  to  war  upon  his  own  home  and  all  that  he  holds  dear  in 
that  home.  For  ourselves  we  are  Southern  men  and  North 
Carolinians,  and  at  war  with  those  who  are  at  war  with  the 
South  and  North  Carolina."4 

Governor  John  W.  Ellis  had  on  the  17th  called  a  special 
session  of  the  Legislature  to  meet  on  May  first;  ordered  seized 
the  coast  forts  and  the  United  States  arsenal  at  Fayetteville ; 
and  called  for  volunteers.5 


. 


1Fayetteville  Observer,  April  15,  1861,  p.  2. 

Whirl.,  p.  3. 

*Ibid.,  p.  3. 

mid.,  April  23,  1861. 

6Hill,  Young  People's  History  of  North  Carolina,  p.  271. 


6  Meredith  College  Bulletin. 

The  Observer  quotes  an  article  from  the  Raleigh  Standard 
which  shows  that  the  "Unionists"  of  North  Carolina  will  all 
stand  by  the  South  when  it  is  attacked.  This  is  particularly 
to  be  noticed  as  in  February  the  people  had  voted  against  call- 
ing a  Convention  to  consider  the  relations  of  the  State  to  the 
Federal  Union  47,333  to  46,672  and  at  the  same  time  had  elected 
eighty-three  (83)  Union  delegates  to  thirty-seven  (37)  Dis- 
union delegates  in  case  a  Convention  was  held.6 

The  Legislature  on  May  1  passed  an  act  providing  for  an 
election  on  May  17  of  delegates  to  a  Convention  to  meet  on 
May  20.  The  Legislature  also  voted  various  measures  in  prepa- 
ration for  war.7 

"When  the  Convention  met  in  the  Commons  Hall  at  the  capi- 
tolj  one  hundred  and  sixteen  delegates  were  present  and  four 
absent.  It  had  as  members  many  of  the  most  influential  men  in 
the  State. 

While  a  preliminary  vote  seemed  to  show  forty-nine  for  the 
Badger  theory  of  revolution  and  sixty-six  for  the  Secession 
ordinance  of  Craige,  the  Craige  ordinance  was  finally  unani- 
mously adopted. s  One  of  the  members  years  afterward  wrote: 
"I  remember  well  that  when  the  act  of  Secession  was  consum- 
mated the  body  looked  like  a  sea  partly  in  storm,  partly  calm,  the 
Secessionists  shouting  and  throwing  up  their  hats  and  rejoicing, 
the  Conservatives  sitting  quietly,  calm,  and  depressed."9  A  week 
later  North  Carolina  joined  the  Confederacy.  Yet  even  during 
these  early  days  we  find  slight  references  to  individual  uncer- 
tainty or  difference  of  opinion.10 

While  these  things  were  happening  in  the  South,  the  North, 
equally  thrilled  by  the  firing  on  Fort  Sumter,  was  for  the  time 
seemingly  fused  into  one  party  and  ready  to  crush,  if  possible, 
all  opposition  to  the  policy  of  the  government. 

This  seeming  unanimity  of  opinion  North  and  South,  we  must 
remember,  was  at  the  beginning  of  the  struggle,  when  few  on 
either  side  realized  what  the  actual  conflict  would  mean.     That 


'North  Carolina  Manual,  1913,  pp.  1013-1015,  1018,  Note  10. 
''Senate  and    House  Journals,  18P0-1861. 

*  Journal  of  the  State  Contention,  1861,  pp.  3-17,  also  Fayetteville  Observer,  May  27,  1861,  p.  1. 
9HoHen,  Memoirs,  p.  17. 

™Fayetteville  Observer,  Jan.  20,  1862,  pp.  2-3;  Jan.  27,  1862;  Feb.  3,  1862,  pp.  2-3;  Feb.  10, 
1862,  p.  3. 


Meredith  College  Bulletin.  7 

there  was  later  much  divergence  in  the  North  is  well  known; 
that  there  would  also  be  honest  difference  of  opinion  in  the 
South  was  also  to  be  expected.  These  differences  were  more  or 
less  unorganized  during  the  first  year  or  two  of  the  war,  though 
the  newspapers  by  1862  reflect  the  tendency  to  criticism.  The 
independence  of  the  press  and  its  freedom  from  arrest  under 
both  the  State  and  Confederate  Constitutions  is  an  important 
fact  to  remember. 

An  example  of  the  conditions  developing  in  the  State  is  shown 
in  a  private  letter  from  William  J.  Yates,  editor  of  the  Char- 
lotte Democrat,  to  Mr.  Hale,  dated  August  18,  1862,  discussing 
conditions  in  Forsyth,  in  the  ccurse  of  which  he  says : 

"I  think,  though,  it  is  not  best  to  make  some  things  known  to  the 
public  at  this  time;  therefore  I  have  refrained  from  giving  informa- 
tion of  disaffection  in  certain  localities  through  my  paper.  I  have 
not  published  one-sixteentb  part  of  what  I  have  heard,  because  I  dis- 
like for  the  public  outside  of  the  State  to  know  that  we  have  any 
tories  in  the  State  *  *  *  a  large  portion  of  our  population  is  dis- 
affected. The  conscript  law  has  cooled  the  patriotism  of  many 
alarmingly,  and  I  know  of  some  who  were  very  patriotic  in  words 
before  that  law  went  into  operation,  but  who  now  manifest  anything 
else  but  the  right  spirit — they  are  tired  of  the  war  and  say  they  are 
willing  for  anything  to  stop  it." 

In  the  summer  of  1862  came  the  biennial  election  for  Gov- 
ernor, the  first  since  the  war.  There  were  no  regular  conven- 
tions held  and  no  platforms  adopted,  but  leading  newspapers 
suggested  candidates  and  some  county  meetings  were  held.  Col. 
William  Johnston,  President  of  the  Charlotte  and  South  Caro- 
lina Railroad,  was  the  candidate  of  the  Democratic  papers, 
while  Col.  Zebulon  Baird  Vance,  who  had  been  brought  forward 
by  Holden  of  the  Standard  and  supported  by  the  Observer  and 
other  leading  papers,  opposed  Johnston  and  was  elected  by  over 
30,000  majority. 

This  election  was  interpreted  by  some  as  unfavorable  to  the 
Confederate  Government,  as  Colonel  Johnston  was  a  Democrat, 
while  before  the  war  Vance  had  been  a  Union  man.  Some  of 
the  Northern  papers  misinterpreted  the  election  in  this  way, 
as  some  historians  have  since,11  but  Vance  had  been  in  the  army 


llFayetteville  Observer,  Sept.  1,  1862;  Dodd,  Jefferson  Davis,  p.  283. 


8  Meredith  College  Bulletin. 

from  the  outbreak  of  the  war  and  was  to  show  as  Governor 
his  loyalty  to  the  State  of  North  Carolina  and  the  South. 

All  through  the  following  winter  the  Observer  reflects  the  con- 
flicting reports  of  conditions  in  the  State.  In  an  editorial  on 
the  interference  of  the  Richmond  Enquirer  in  the  affairs  of 
North  Carolina  Mr.  Hale  says: 

"And  yet  forsooth  these  Virginians  lecture  her  upon  loyalty  and 
duty;  falsely  charge  her  with  entertaining  a  'plot'  to  overthrow  the 
government,  and  insinuate  that  she  has  a  lurking  hope  of  a  restora- 
tion or  reconstruction  of  the  defunct  and  despised  Union.  And  one 
of  the  high  officers  of  the  Confederate  Government,  whose  duties 
bring  him  in  contact  with  thousands  of  North  Carolinians,  both 
civilians  and  soldiers,  insolently  and  falsely  calls  her  'a  damned 
nest  of  traitors,'  for  which,  if  President  Davis  has  a  proper  idea  of 
what  is  due  himself  and  to  an  insulted  State,  he  will  pitch  the  slan- 
derer out  of  the  office  he  disgraces."13 

In  the  next  issue  there  is  an  editorial  showing  how  certain 
newspapers  in  Virginia,  as  the  Richmond  Enquirer,  and  in 
South  Carolina,  slander  the  State,  though  Mr.  Hale  admits 
that  they  are  moved  by  certain  journals  in  North  Carolina  it- 
self, "which,"  as  he  says,  "have  no  State  feeling."  Twice  dur- 
ing March  the  Observer  appeals  to  the  press  for  the  sake  of  the 
cause  to  stop  wrangling  and  making  charges  of  unfaithfulness 
which  are  calculated  to  encourage  the  enemy  as  much  as  a  great 
victory.13 

We  are  approaching  the  summer  of  1863,  when  the  discontent 
was  to  be  organized  and  find  a  leader  in  the  editor  of  the 
Raleigh  Standard,  W.  W.  Holden,  who  had  been  a  power  in  the 
political  history  of  the  State  since  about  1850  and  had  brought 
forward  Vance  as  a  candidate  for  Governor  in  1862. 

The  history  of  the  State  through  the  war  was  so  largely 
moulded  by  these  two  leaders  that  their  attitude  toward  the 
State,  the  Confederacy  and  the  war  should  be  most  carefully 
studied. 

In  the  biography  of  Jefferson  Davis,  written  by  a  brilliant 
native  of  North  Carolina,  the  idea  is  given  that  Vance  and 

12Fayetteville  Observer,  January  12,  1863,  p.  3. 
™Ibid.,  March  5,  1863,  p.  3;  March  26,  1863,  p.  3. 


Meredith  College  Bulletin.  9 

Holden  worked  together  in  opposing  the  Confederacy  and  for 
peace.14  As  the  book  was  published  in  1907  Mr.  Dodd's  sources 
were,  I  assume,  the  Official  Records  of  the  War  of  the  Rebellion 
which  contain  only  Governor  Vance's  controversies  with  Presi- 
dent Davis.  The  Vance  and  the  Hale  papers  had  not  then  been 
made  available  for  historical  purposes.  In  these  sources,  many 
of  which  were  confidential  letters  written  in  the  stress  of  the 
times,  the  evidence  seems  irrefutable  that  Vance  and  Holden 
broke  with  each  other  in  the  summer  of  1863  over  the  issue 
of  the  Peace  meetings,  Governor  Vance  continuing  to  work  for 
the  Southern  cause  throughout  the  war. 

Before  discussing  the  "Peace  Movement"  it  may  be  well  to 
say  a  word  about  Jefferson  Davis  and  the  Confederacy.  In  a 
most  interesting  paper  on  "A  Theory  of  Jefferson  Davis"  in  the 
American  Historical  Review  for  October,  1915,  Mr.  W.  W. 
Stephenson  of  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  writing  of  the  central 
fact  of  Davis's  youth,  says : 

«*  *  *  ne  wag  a  boy  without  a  country  *  *  *  his  was  a 
migratory  growth,  frequently  transplanted15  *  *  *  The  army 
must  to  a  considerable  extent  have  been  his  country  *  *  *  Long 
afterward,  in  his  final  crisis,  Davis  failed  to  appreciate  a  certain  type 
of  man.  It  was  a  type  in  which  love  of  one's  community  had  be- 
come a  passion.  To  that  type  he  appeared,  in  those  stern  days,  to  be 
a  monster.  To  him,  apparently,  the  crushing  of  that  type  seemed  a 
matter  of  course."18 

Again  Mr.  Stephenson  says : 

"Davis  at  the  outset  of  his  career  accepted  the  political  theories, 
the  political  phraseology,  of  the  States'  rights  party  *  *  *  For 
fifteen  years  he  had  talked  one  thing  while  he  meant  another, 
talked  the  constitutional  rights  of  the  individual  States  while  what 
he  really  meant  was  the  economic  interests  of  a  consolidated  South. 
*  *  *  He  clung  to  the  phraseology  of  States'  rights  as  stubbornly 
even  as  Rhett,  or  Stephens,  who  genuinely  believed  it.  And  yet 
when  occasion  finally  tested  him,  behind  his  words,  striking  through 
his  words,  appears  something  quite  different — the  Southern  National- 
ist.17 *  *  *  The  internal  history  of  the  Confederacy  is  largely  the 
battle   of  these   irreconcilable   ideals18     *     *     *     His   States'    rights 


"William  E.  Dodd,  Jefferson  Davis,  pp.  283,  301,  337-340. 

*6W    W.  Stephenson,  "A  Theory  of  Jefferson  Davis,"  in  American  Historical  Review, Vol. 
XXI,  pp.  73-74. 
™Ibid.,  p.  75. 
"Ibid.,  pp.  83-84. 
™Ibid.,  p.  87. 


10  Meredith  College  Bulletin. 

phraseology  and  his  long  series  of  centralizing  measures  appeared  to 
them  irreconcilable.19  *  *  *  He  became  the  prisoner  of  an  illu- 
sion."20 

The  able  paper  on  the  "Relations  Between  the  Confederate 
States  Government  and  the  Government  of  North  Carolina/' 
given  by  Judge  Montgomery  before  this  Association  in  1913, 
reveals  cleaily  this  element  in  the  situation.21 

Mr.  Dodd  in  writing  of  the  general  condition  of  the  Southern 
Government  at  the  beginning  of  1863,  says :  "The  commanders 
of  the  troops  were  at  loggerheads ;  parties  and  cliques  had  grown 
up ;  and  the  President  was  not  implicitly  trusted  by  the  peo- 
ple."22 

Between  these  two  forces  of  the  State  and  the  Confederacy 
stood  Vance.  On  the  one  side  he  must  safeguard  the  rights  of 
the  Sovereign  State  of  JSTorth  Carolina  which  he  thought  were 
being  threatened,  and,  on  the  other,  he  must  hold  the  State  loyal 
to  the  Confederacy  to  which  she  had  pledged  her  faith. 

On  June  10th  he  wrote  a  private  letter  to  Mr.  Hale  asking 
him  to  come  to  Raleigh.  This  is  thought  to  be  the  beginning 
of  the  association  of  Governor  Vance  and  Mr.  Hale,  although 
they  knew  each  other  before.  In  this  letter  Governor  Vance 
says: 

"I  wish  to  talk  with  you  about  some  matters  seriously  affecting 
the  status  of  the  party  which  elevated  me  to  office  and  perhaps  the 
good  of  the  Confederate  cause  itself,  and  I  hardly  wish  to  put  any- 
thing I  desire  to  s?y  on  paper.  I  make  this  request  of  you,  as  being 
more  nearly  of  my  precise  stripe  politically — past  and  present — than 
any  other  editor  in  the  State;  and  as  the  undisputed  organ  of  th.3 
war  element  of  the  old  Whigs. 

"Things  are  moving  here  in  a  manner  calculated  to  give  such 
a  Whig  uneasiness  and  I  desire  advice  and  consultation.  I  hope  to 
see  Mr.  Graham  this  week." 

In  a  letter  from  Dr.  Kemp  P.  Battle  from  Raleigh  to  Mr. 
Hale,  July  3,  1863,  he  adds  this  confidential  note: 

"I  am  afraid  there  is  growing  a  split  in  the  Conservative  party; 
e.  g.  Vance  and  yourself  on  one  side  and  on  the  other  those  who  love 
to  thwart  and  carp  at  the  Confederate  Government  and  the  war." 


1 'Stephenson,  Jefferson  Davis,  pp.  87-88. 

20/6iW.,  pp.  S7-S3. 

21Walter  A.  Montgomery,  "Relations  Between  the  Confederate  States  Government 
and  the  Goverameit  of  North  Carolina,"  Proceedings  North  Carolina  Literary  and  His- 
torical Assoc'ntion,  1313,  po.  33-55. 

"William  E.  Dodd,  Jefferson  Davis,  p.  299. 


Meredith  College  Bulletin.  11 

In  a  confidential  letter  dated  July  26,  1863,  from  Governor 
Vance  to  Mr.  Hale  he  says : 

"I  assure  you  I  am  deep'y  concerned  at  the  turn  things  have  taken. 
I  asked  Mr.  Graham,  Governor  Swain  and  others  to  talk  to  Holden, 
but  it  has  done  little  good- — he  pretends  and  maybe  really  is  of 
opinion  that  four-fifths  of  the  people  are  ready  for  reconstruction, 
and  says  he  is  only  following  the  people  not  leading  them — This  is 
not  true  in  fact — he  is  responsible  for  half  this  feeling  at  least, 
if  it  exists;  of  course  the  driver  sits  behind  the  team  and  yet  may 
be  said  to  follow  his  horses. 

"I  had  a  long  talk  with  him  yesterday — and  requested  him  to  say 
in  his  paper  that  he  was  not  my  organ  on  this  matter  and  did  not 
speak  my  sentiments.  He  promised  to  do  so.  I  think  it  all  im- 
portant that  the  people  should  know  my  sentiments  so  that  should 
there  be  a  split,  he  may  not  be  committing  to  him  any  persons 
under  the  idea  that  he  was  my  friend,  which  I  think  likely  ac- 
counts for  much  of  his  popularity." 

During  August  the  letters  to  Mr.  Hale  are  numerous ; 
practically  all  of  them  discuss  the  growing  dissatisfaction  in  the 
State.  Quotations  follow  from  those  of  Governor  Vance,  and 
a  few  others. 

In  a  long,  closely  written  letter  from  P.  W.  Stanback,  Little 
Mills,  August,  1863,  he  says : 

"Times,  as  you  may  agree  with  me,  look  exceedingly  gloomy  for 
us  *  *  *  our  late  reverses  seem  to  have  emboldened  a  few  bad 
spirits  among  us,  they  have  seized  the  opportune  moment  to  en- 
courage the  disaffection  that  they  know  to  have  existed  among  the 
lower  classes  of  our  rural' popu'ation,  who  (very  many  at  least)  have 
long  entertained  prejudices  against  the  property  holder  especially 
against  slave  owners,  they  persistingly  regard  this  war  as  gotten  up 
for  their  exclusive  benefit  that  they  have  no  part  or  interest  in  it, 
that  the  burdens  fall  unduly  heavy  upon  them,  they  therefore  be- 
came greatly  dissatisfied  with  both  the  exemption  and  conscription 
laws  especially  so  with  the  former  as  givirg  to  the  s^ve  owner  im- 
munities and  advantages  over  them  on  account  of  their  property,  this 
being  the  case  I  have  held     *     *     *     that  the  [  ]  means  should 

have  pursued  towards  them  a  ccnciMatory  couree  to  lend  them  as  far 
as  practicable  a  helping  hand  and  this  from  principle  no  less  than 
policy." 

A  letter  from  Thomas  S.  Ashe,  member  of  Confederate  Con- 
gress 1862-1864,  Supreme  Court  Judge  1879-87,  dated  August 


12  Meredith  College  Bulletin. 

5,  1863,  Wadesboro,  to  Mr.  Hale,  in  which  he  mentions  that  he 
is  again  to  run  for  Congress  and  needs  advice,  and  also  says : 

"  *  *  *  but  I  am  really  fearful  that  if  we  had  an  armistice  we 
should  never  be  able  to  get  our  people  to  fight  again,  and  that  re- 
union would  be  the  result.  *  *  *  But  I  tell  you  my  dear  Sir  that 
I  believe  that  there  is  a  purpose  (now  latent)  on  the  part  of  the 
leaders  of  the  peace  movement  to  carry  our  State  back  into  the 
United  States.  They  are  just  now  cautiously  feeling  their  way 
through  these  meetings  but  if  our  reverses  continue,  it  will  not  be 
long  before  an  organized  party  in  the  State  advocating  that  measure 
will  assume  shape  and  form,  and  will  be  headed  by  prominent  men." 

A  letter  from  Governor  Vance  August  11,  1863,  in  which  he 
reports  a  successful  visit  to  President  Davis,  where  they  dis- 
cussed North  Carolina  affairs  and  Davis  gave  Vance  authority 
to  do  certain  things.     He  then  adds : 

"I  believe  however  the  split  with  Holden  is  decreed  of  the  gods — 
I  have  made  up  my  mind  to  it  *  *  *  He  is  for  submission,  re- 
construction or  anything  else  that  will  put  him  back  under  Lincoln 
and  stop  the  war — and  I  might  add — punish  his  old  friends  and  co- 
laborers. 

"Pitch  into  them — cry  aloud  and  spare  not — my  life,  popularity  and 
everything  shall  go  into  this  contest." 

A  long  confidential  eight-page  letter  from  Morganton,  August 
29,  1863,*  reports  at  length  the  disloyalty  in  the  mountain  sec- 
tion of  the  State,  and  says: 

"I  know  not  how  it  is  elsewhere  but  this  part  of  the  State  is  in  a 
deplorable  condition — on  the  very  edge,  indeed,  of  civil  strife  and 
butchery.  The  mountains  are  full  of  deserters,  who  are  banded 
together  and  emboldened  by  a  disloyal  public  opinion,  which  is  daily 
finding  expression  in  popular  assemblages  and  otherwise.  All  per- 
sons are  beginning  to  feel  that  sense  of  insecurity  which  at  is  once 
the  cause  and  the  effect  of  internal  commotion,  and  presages  a 
speedy  appeal  to  arms,  unless  arrested.  The  root  of  the  whole  matter 
is  a  deadly  hostility  to  our  cause  and  our  government,  notwithstand- 
ing the  specious  pretext  under  which  it  is  sought  to  be  covered  up. 
[Illegible  from  effects  of  fire,  smoke  and  water.] 

"It  is  pretended,  again,  that  North  Carolina  has  been  put  upon  and 
slighted — but  how  comes  it  that  when  the  Confederate  Government 
backs  down  and  almost  gets  on  its  knees  to  apologize,  these  men  still 


"Only  the  initials  V.  C.  remain  of  the  signature  to  this  letter,  but  by  comparing  it  with 
other  letters  in  the  collection  it  seems  to  have  been  written  by  V.  C.  Barringer,  of  Concord. 


Meredith  College  Bulletin.  13 

feel  affronted  and  will  accept  no  satisfaction  *  *  *  If  the 
grounds  of  complaint  alluded  to  did  not  exist,  they  would  find  others. 
Now  it  seems  to  me  that  before  we  can  take  the  first  step  toward  a 
cure,  we  must  understand  something  of  the  nature  of  the  disease. 
We  must  boldly  recognize  the  fact  that  there  are  in  North  Carolina 
and  have  been  from  the  start,  a  considerable  body  of  men — many 
of  them  influential — who  have  been  secretly  and  desperately  opposed 
to  our  whole  movement — who  acquiesced  in  the  incipient  stages  of 
the  revolution  only  because  they  could  not  help  themselves — and  who 
today  prefer  the  old  Union  to  the  Confederacy.  [Illegible  from  effects 
of  fire  and  water]  last  a  mass  and  strength  of  popular  feeling  setting 
in  against  the  Confederacy  which  is  as  certain  to  entail  upon  us 
civil  war  in  North  Carolina  as  that  the  sun  is  in  the  heaven — "  [He 
then  explains  they  expect  to  follow  forms  of  law  and  elect  as  many 
peace  men  as  possible  to  Congress  and  also  get  control  of  the  State 
Government.] 

"The  whole  thing  is  managed  with  a  skill  and  an  energy  that  show 
the  hand  of  a  master  schemer." 

The  writer  expresses  the  opinion  that  ISTorth  Carolina  is  more 
liable  to  change  and  "to  he  played  upon  by  sophists  and  calcula- 
tors than  any  of  the  Confederate  States  proper  except  Tennes- 
see." 

As  remedies  he  suggests: 

1.  The  loyal  press  must  discuss  the  whole  question  fully  before 
the  people. 

"Unfortunately  we  got  divided — hotly  divided  about  the  Secession 
of  the  State  in  the  winter  of  '61 — one  side  lauding  the  Old  Union 
and  the  other  side  the  new  Confederacy,  when  Lincoln's  proclama- 
tion, like  a  clap  of  thunder,  startled  and  united  both  sides.  But  it 
was  not,  I  affirm,  a  Union  based  upon  any  intelligent  and  heartfelt 
popular  conviction  of  the  truth  [Illegible  from  effects  of  fire  and 
water].  Attachment  to  the  Union  unshaken  [Illegible]  hear  the 
Confederate  Government  denounced  as  we  see  it  daily  denounced, 
is  it  any  wonder  that  they  should  feel  those  attachments  rather 
strengthened  and  that  they  have  been  led  into  a  causeless  rebellion? 
I  speak  what  I  know  when  I  say  that  many  persons  believe  that  the 
Davis  government  is  a  more  galling  tyranny  than  Lincoln's.  I  do 
not  mean,  of  course,  that  we  should  give  Davis  unmixed  praise. 
[Explains  that  the  right  of  separation  should  be  explained  to  the 
people].  Crime  and  the  guilt  of  crime  is  associated  in  the  common 
mind  with  the  hateful  names  of  rebel  and  traitor.  Our  people,  indeed, 
no  people  can  sustain  long  the  weight  of  the  conviction  that  they  are 
incurring  every  day  the  punishment  due  to  the  darkest  deeds 
known  in  the  catalogue  of  human  crimes.    We  ought,  if  we  cannot  do 


14  Meredith  College  Bulletin. 

better,  at  least,  take  the  ground  assumed  by  Washington  in  the  con- 
test between  England  and  the  colonies,  that  we  are  fighting  under  the 
de  facto  government  of  the  State,  and  as  such  are  not  guilty,  even  in 
the  view  of  the  English  law  of  treason.  Until  something  is  done  to 
remove  this  fatal  impression,  I  cannot  hope  for  any  permanent  good 
among  our  people.  Let  them  feel  that  they  are  right  in  morals  and  in 
law,  and  we  may  hope  all  things,  come  though  disasters  may  as 
thick  as  blackberries. 

2.  "But  secondly  and  chiefly,  a  line  ought  to  be  drawn  between  the 
friends  of  Governor  Vance  and  Holden.  No  true  man  doubts  the 
integrity  or  the  loyalty  of  the  former — every  true  man  must  doubt 
that  of  the  latter  *  *  *  You  have  no  idea  of  the  extent  of  his 
circulation.  I  have  found  his  paper  in  every  nook  and  corner  of  the 
mountains.  Now  with  such  a  man  you  cannot  mince  matters.  True 
wisdom  dictates  that  the  sooner  you  break  with  him  the  better — 
and  I  believe  that  if  the  friends  of  Governor  Vance  will  boldly  and 
at  once  shake  him  off,  the  State  may  be  saved.  Otherwise,  unless 
we  have  a  successful  peace,  he  will  wind  the  State  around  his  fingers 
as  he  pleases  and  snap  them  in  Governor  Vance's  face. 

I  have  written  more  than  I  intended.  I  am  really  alarmed  for 
the  first  time  during  the  war  as  to  the  fate  of  North  Carolina.  I 
am  ashamed  of  the  figure  she  is  made  to  cut  before  her  friends  and 
her  enemies." 

A  most  interesting  letter  from  Aldert  Smedes,  St.  Mary's 
School,  Raleigh,  August  31,  1863,  in  which  he  thanks  Mr.  Hale 
for  his  article  replying  to  the  Standard,  and  then  says : 

"But  it  seems  to  me  that  such  heavy  ordnance  as  you  have  used 
against  him  is  directed  at  game  too  small.  Holden  is  not  really  at  the 
bottom  of  the  disaffection  in  this  State.  He  is  merely  the  mouthpiece 
of  the  discontented,  or  the  vane  which  shows  the  direction  of  the 
ai:gry  currents  of  popular  feeling. 

"The  principal  cause  of  our  present  troubles  in  this  State  is  to  be 
found  in  the  stomach  rather  than  in  the  heads  and  hearts  of  our 
people.  Gent'emen,  the  great  majority  of  our  people  cannot  buy 
the  necessaries  of  life  at  the  present  enormous  prices!  Starvation  not 
only  stares  them  in  the  face,  but  actually  begins  to  work  within 
them,  and  we  know  what  a  depressing  [Illegible]  influence  upon  the 
temper  and  views  of  men,  enforced  hunger  produces.  People  who 
cannot  get  enough  to  eat  are  in  a  mood  to  grumble  at  everything. 
What  wonder  then  that  they  should  vent  their  speen  upon  the  war, 
which  is  the  immediate  cause  of  their  suffering. 

"I  confess  I  do  not  wonder  that  the  patriotism  of  some  waxes  cold, 
and  their  wrath  hot  when  they  look  at  the  state  of  things  around 
them." 


Meredith  College  Bulletin.  15 

Dr.  Smedes  then  goes  on  to  speak  of  the  rich  men  who  by  high 
prices  are  extorting  money  from  the  poor,  and  says  that  they 
and  not  Mr.  Holden  are  the  worst  enemies  of  the  country. 

Realizing  the  alarming  condition  of  affairs,  Mr.  Hale 
changes  the  policy  of  attack  and  from  minimizing  the  diver- 
gence, in  a  series  of  strong  editorials  beginning  August  17th, 
boldly  faces  the  issue  in  the  open.     He  says : 

"It  can  no  longer  be  doubted  or  denied  that  there  is  a  division  in 
public  sentiment  in  North  Carolina — on  the  one  hand  a  determina- 
tion to  resist  subjugation  by  the  Yankee  government,  and  to  achieve 
the  independence  of  the  Confederacy;  on  the  other  a  peace  party,  as 
it  is  falsely  called,  that  would  be  willing  to  have  independence,  but 
clamors  for  peace  with  or  without  independence." 

He  says  the  first  are  led  by  Governor  Yance  and  the  latter  by 
the  Raleigh  Standard,  though  it  is  not  so  radical  as  some  of  its 
followers.23 

As  these  editorials  continue  Mr.  Hale  is  in  receipt  of  various 
letters  reporting  the  good  effects  they  are  having  throughout  the 
State  and  enclosing  new  subscriptions  to  the  paper. 

That  the  conditions  in  the  State  were  critical  is  shown  by  a 
most  important  "Address  of  the  army  to  the  people  of  North 
Carolina"  that  appeared  in  the  same  issue  of  the  Observer 
signed  by  seven  officers,  among  whom  were  Colonel  Thomas 
Garrett  of  Bertie  County  and  Colonel  Bryan  Grimes  of  Pitt 
County.  This  was  an  appeal  to  the  people  to  resist  any  effort 
toward  factions;  it  discusses  the  questions  at  issue  and  explains 
why  they  should  stand  together.  The  appeal  goes  on  to  show 
the  danger  to  the  State  of  these  tendencies  and  that  they  might 
lead  to  civil  conflict  within  the  State,  as  in  Maryland,  Kentucky 
and  Missouri.24 

The  following  independent  accounts  of  a  conference  between 
Governor  Vance,  Governor  Graham,  Mr.  Satterthwaite  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Governor's  Council  and  Mr.  Holden  are  especially 
important  as  showing  the  opposite  positions  held  by  Vance  and 
Holden : 

A  letter  from  Governor  Vance  to  Mr.  Hale,  September  7,  1863, 


23Fayetteville  Observer,  August  17,  1863,  p.  3. 
2iIbid.,  September  7,  1363,  p.  4. 


16  Meredith  College  Bulletin. 

from  Kaleigh,  in  which  he  refers  to  a  conference  which  Mr.  Hale 
could  not  attend,  but  Governor  Graham  and  Mr.  Satterthwaite 
did.  He  read  them  letters  from  about  thirty  leading  Whigs  of 
the  State,  "all  concurring  in  my  views  of  duty." 

"We  sent  for  Holden  and  Governor  Graham,  talked  to  him  earnest- 
ly for  three  hours.  It  would  do  no  good — he  would  agree  to  nothing 
and  insisted  that  the  meetings  should  go  on  and  I  nor  no  one  else 
should  say  a  word!  Modest  proposition  truly.  I  offered  to  keep 
silent  if  he  would  discourage  the  meetings — would  not  agree  to  it. 
Governor  Graham  was  clear  that  I  should  issue  a  proclamation,  but 
insisted  it  should  be  very  mild  and  cautious.  I  have  accordingly 
written  one  which  will  appear  toworrow,  but  I  do  assure  you  it  is 
not  the  document  my  judgment  would  have  dictated,  but  I  yielded  to 
Mr.  Graham's  better  advice.  I  do  not  know  that  I  will  publish 
[burnt]  unless  my  friends  should  think  it  of  sufficient  importance. 
I  had  prepared  a  lengthy  letter  going  into  the  argument  of  the  case 
fully,  but  it  was  thought  best  to  adopt  another  mode. 

"From  my  many  letters  and  my  own  knowledge  of  the  men  hold- 
ing these  meetings,  the  metal  is  very  small — I  expect  the  peace  men 
really  have  a  majority  to  start  with  but  the  brains  are  largely  with 
us  *  *  *  I  am  very  hopeful  of  the  contest.  [He  then  suggests 
the  policy  Mr.  Hale  is  to  pursue  toward  Holden  in  his  paper.] 

"Don't  let  him  deceive  you — he  is  for  reconstruction  out  and  out — 
Write  me  often — 

Many  years  later  Mr.  Holden  wrote  the  following  account  of 
the  conference : 

"A  short  time  after  this,  Governor  Graham  was  invited  to  Raleigh 
and  I  was  sent  for  to  come  down  and  meet  him  at  the  Governor's 
mansion.  I  went  down  in  company  with  F.  E.  Satterthwaite,  Es- 
quire, of  Washington,  N.  C.  Mr.  Satterthwaite  agreed  with  me,  but 
took  no  part  in  the  conversation.  Governor  Graham  and  Vance  and 
myself  talked  for  a  long  time  on  the  state  of  the  country.  About 
that  time  I  was  publishing  a  series  of  proceedings  of  peace  meetings 
in  various  counties.  Governor  Vance  was  opposed  to  them.  I  told 
him  the  people  had  a  right  to  assemble  and  express  their  opinions 
and  petition  for  redress  of  grievances,  but  I  did  not  approve  of 
propositions  to  return  to  the  Union  unconditionally;  yet  the  people 
who  held  these  meetings  were  the  men  who  elected  him  governor. 
Governor  Graham  in  this  respect  seemed  to  concur  with  me  more 
than  Governor  Vance.25     *     *     *     * 

"This   was   the  beginning  of  the   wide   separation   between   Gov- 


"Holden,  Memoirs,  p.  24,  also  pp.  76-77. 


Meredith  College  Bulletin.  17 

ernor  Vance  and  myself  which  resulted  in  my  opposing  him  for 
Governor  in  1864,  and  here  I  may  say,  and  do  say  in  the  most  em- 
phatic manner,  that  I  have  never  questioned  his  integrity,  nor  his 
honor,  nor  the  sincerity  of  his  devotion  to  his  principles,  or  to  the 
people  whose  servant  he  was  and  is."26 

Just  at  this  time  Raleigh — with  a  population  of  between  four 
and  five  thousand — was  thrown  into  great  excitement  by  a  mob 
which  broke  up  part  of  the  office  of  the  Raleigh  Standard,  while 
the  following  morning  another  destroyed  the  office  of  the  State 
Journal.27 

Governor  Vance  took  hold  of  the  situation  vigorously  and  the 
excitement  seemed  in  a  few  weeks  to  have  largely  subsided.  Mr. 
Holden  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Hale,  October  7th,  writes  that  of 
course  after  the  mob  he  could  not  change  his  policy,  but  the 
height  of  the  excitement  over  the  peace  meetings  seemed  over 
and  in  a  letter  dated  October  26th  Governor  Vance  writes:  "I 
receive  continued  evidence  of  a  better  state  of  feeling  in  the 
State."  But  December  10th  in  another  private  letter  he  says : 
"But  the  Holdenites  are  making  every  effort  to  raise  a  row  again. 
God  help  us.  I  fear  we  are  on  the  eve  of  another  revolution  and 
civil  war  in  the  State." 

A  letter  from  Governor  Vance  who  has  been  ill  and  still  not 
well,  dated  December  21,  1863,  in  the  course  of  which  he  says: 

"What  would  you  say  to  Congress  app'g  Commrs  to  treat  for 
peace?  Would  it  do  any  good  North  or  South?  Their  terms  would 
not  be  heard  of  course  and  it  might  help  to  put  down  the  clamor 
here.  Many  of  our  friends  here  think  it  the  only  way  to  save  North 
Carolina  and  I  confess  I  have  been  somewhat  moved  by  their  argu- 
ments but  am  fearful  to  yield  my  position  on  such  without  good 
advice.  Mr.  Graham  was  much  depressed  whilst  here  on  the  subject, 
for  though  we  surpressed  the  resolutions  in  the  caucus,  yet  there  was 
dissatisfaction  among  men  of  whom  you  would  have  thought  better 
things.  Don't  think  me  faint  hearted — I  have  been  sick  and  quite 
gloomy." 

But  the  contest  was  to  assume  a  new  form,  that  of  a  Con- 
vention which  was  to  be  made  the  issue  of  the  State  campaign  in 
1864.     To  show  that  Governor  Vance  felt  himself  the  servant  of 


26Holden,  Memoirs,  p.  25. 

fFayetteville  Observer,  September  14,  1863,  p.  3. 


18  Meredith  College  Bulletin. 

all  the  people  and  of  the  peace  movement  which  he  had  fought  in 
the  State  itself,  we  have  his  letter  to  Mr.  Hale  dated  December 
30,  1863. 

He  had  written  Mr.  Dortch  as  to  the  propriety  of  offering 
terms  of  peace  in  Congress.  "He  saw  the  President,  who  was 
not  quite  convinced  of  its  propriety,  but  would  consult  about  it." 
Governor  Vance  inclines  to  think  more  than  ever  it  could  do 
no  harm  "and  would  silence  clamor  of  a  certain  few  in  North 
Carolina  or  force  them  to  take  sides  against  their  country,  which 
most  of  them  are  afraid  to  do  while  we  still  have  two  great 
armies  in  the  field." 

He  gives  as  another  reason  that  the  plans  are  all  arranged 
to  advocate  a  Convention  in  the  spring.  This  is  to  test  Vance 
and  he  is  to  be  beaten  if  he  opposes  it.  He  says :  "I  want  the 
question  narrowed  down  to  Lincoln  or  no  Lincoln,  and  don't  in- 
tend to  fritter  away  my  strength  on  any  minor  issue." 

A  long  important  letter  dated  January  16,  1864,  from  D.  K. 
McRae,  who  had  just  returned  from  discussing  affairs  at  Rich- 
mond, expresses  the  opinion  that  a  party  strong  in  numbers — 
having  an  organ  not  unsuited  to  the  position  and  determined 
in  purpose  has  entered  upon  a  plan  by  which  the  State  at  no 
distant  day  is  to  be  carried  out  of  the  Confederacy."  He  reports 
having  discussed  the  matter  plainly  with  President  Davis.  "I 
recommended  sharp  and  decisive  measures,  to  wit,  the  suspen- 
sion of  the  writ  of  Habeas  Corpus  and  the  declaration  of 
martial  law,  the  arrest  of  the  most  guilty  parties  and  the  em- 
ployment of  a  sufficient  force  to  carry  the  laws  of  Congress  into 
thorough  execution." 

In  a  letter  from  Governor  Vance  to  Mr.  Hale,  dated  January 
22,  1864,  he  writes  that  many  good  men  are  alarmed  over  the 
talk,  among  the  disaffected,  about  losing  their  liberties  as 
Habeas  Corpus.  He  asks  Mr.  Hale  to  read  some  documents 
sent  him  which  tell  of  the  overthrow  of  the  ballot  in  Kentucky 
and  the  conditions  there,  so  that  he  may  make  use  of  it  in  his 
paper  to  show  the  disaffected  the  conditions. 

A  letter  from  Governor  Vance,  February  11,  1864,  after 
discussing  the  issues,  says: 

"I  make  no  doubt  but  the  Convention  issue  will  force  everything 
asunder  and  form  a  new  party — two  of  them  rather.    I  do  not  wish 


Meredith  College  Bulletin.  19 

this  rupture  to  be  upon  any  minor  issue  *  *  *  Let  them  [the 
ultra  conservatives]  abuse  Jeff  Davis  and  the  Secessionists  to  their 
hearts'  content,  so  they  will  oppose  this  Convention  movement  and 
keep  to  their  duty  on  the  war  question,  and  whilst  I  would  disapprove 
of  all  this  as  vexatious,  I  hold  it  would  be  bad  policy  to  waste  my 
strength  by  quarreling  with  them." 

Years  afterward,  in  writing  of  this  campaign,  Mr.  HolJen 
says: 

"As  a  'peace'  man,  after  July,  1863,  I  urged  that  this  State  alone, 
or  with  other  Southern  States,  should  negotiate  for  peace  on  honor- 
able terms  with  the  general  government,  as  it  seemed  to  be  clear 
that  Mr.  Davis  would  not  in  any  event  attempt  to  negotiate;  and  as 
it  also  appeared  to  be  clear  that  if  the  war  went  to  its  end  our  sub- 
jugation was  inevitable.  In  this  I  was  sustained  by  a  large  majority 
of  our  people,  until  Governor  Vance's  Wilkesboro  speech  on  the  22d 
day  of  February,  1864. "2S 

During  the  winter  of  1864  various  letters  were  exchanged  be- 
tween President  Davis  and  Governor  Vance,  in  the  course  of 
which  the  Governor  urged  that  peace  negotiations  be  opened 
with  the  Federals.  President  Davis  shows  the  obstacles  in  the 
way  and  also  advises  him  to  abandon  his  policy  of  conciliation 
toward  the  promoters  of  discontent  and  set  them  at  defiance. 
Governor  Vance's  well  known  letter  to  President  Davis  on 
Habeas  Corpus  strongly  sets  forth  the  discontent  in  the  State, 
but  he  says :  "Where  and  when  have  our  people  failed  you  in 
battle  or  withheld  either  their  blood  or  their  vast  resources?"29 

As  is  well  known,  Holden  ran  for  Governor  in  opposition  to 
Vance  and  the  campaign  was  waged  into  the  summer.  The  files 
of  the  Observer  are  missing  for  some  months,  but  from  the  offi- 
cial record  the  vote  for  Governor  was :  Vance,  58,065 ;  Holden, 
14,471. 30  This  strong  endorsement  of  Vance  showed  that  the 
State  would  abide  by  his  policies.  The  peace  feeling,  as  will  be 
seen,  continued  through  the  last  year  of  the  war,  but  much  of  it 
might  be  attributed  to  a  realization  of  the  final  outcome  rather 
than  to  Union  sentiment. 

One  more  effort  for  peace  was  made  in  November  of  1864, 
when  Mr.  Poole  of  Bertie  County  offered  peace  resolutions  in 


S8HoHen,  Memoirs,  pp.  71-72. 

1  "Letter  of  January  8,  1864,  quoted  in  Fayetteville  Observer  May  30,  1864,  p.  2. 

s°North  Carolina  Manual,  1913,  p.  1000. 


20  Meredith  College  Bulletin. 

the  State  Senate  that  five  commissioners  be  elected  by  the 
General  Assembly  to  act  with  others  from  the  other  States  of  the 
Confederacy  as  a  medium  for  negotiating  a  peace  with  the 
United  States ;  that  they  request  of  President  Davis  that 
he  arrange  for  a  conference  through  the  medium  of  these  com- 
missioners; that  whenever  five  of  the  State  so  act  the  Governor 
communicate  officially  with  President  Davis.31 

The  Observer  later  has  the  following  special  dispatch  in  re- 
gard to  Mr.  Poole's  resolutions : 

"The  peace  resolutions  introduced  by  Mr.  Poole  of  Bertie  were 
tabled  in  the  Senate  today  24  to  20.  A  motion  to  reconsider  was  de- 
feated 23  to  22. "32 

Mr.  Hale  adds :  "This  result  would  have  been  more  gratify- 
ing if  it  had  been  arrived  at  with  some  approach  to  unanimity. 
That  such  resolution  should  have  been  supported  by  twenty-two 
senators  is  astonishing."33 

I  cannot  close  without  a  word  for  the  masterly  way  in  which 
the  State  affairs  were  managed  during  these  years  by  Governor 
Vance  and  his  interpreter  to  the  people,  Mr.  Edward  J.  Hale. 
The  more  the  actual  conditions  are  understood  the  more  amazed 
one  is  at  the  marvelous  skill  these  men  showed  in  keeping  the 
outward  organization  so  efficient.  Both  had  been  strong  Union 
men,  both  had  continued  so  until  Lincoln's  call  for  troops. 
Yet  when  they  went  with  the  South  neither  swerved  in  his 
loyalty,  but  worked  with  tireless  energy  and  gave  all  he  had  of 
ability  and  skill  to  her  cause. 


tlFayetteviUe  Observer,  November  28,  1864,  p.  3. 
>2Ibid.,  December  5,  1864,  p.  4;  December  8,  p.  1. 
*sIbid.,  December  19,  1864,  p.  1. 


Meredith  College  Bulletin.  21 

Conclusions 

1.  The  vote  on  the  matter  of  a  Convention  in  February,  1861, 
indicates  that  JSTorth  Carolina  was  strongly  Union  down  to  Lin- 
coln's call  for  troops,  April  15,  1861. 

2.  The  relations  between  the  Confederacy  and  ISTorth  Carolina 
were  not  cordial;  the  people  felt  that  the  State  was  distrusted 
and  treated  with  suspicion.  The  feeling  seemed  especially 
strong  against  many  of  the  centralizing  policies  of  Jefferson 
Davis.  The  extremely  complex  conditions  of  affairs  between 
the  Confederacy  and  the  State  frequently  placed  Governor 
Vance  in  most  delicate  and  trying  situations  which,  with  his 
group  of  able  advisers,  he  met  with  great  tact,  firmness  and 
ability.  The  evidence  from  his  confidential  correspondence 
with  Hale  proves  conclusively  that  he  was  unswervingly  loyal 
to  the  State  and  the  cause  of  the  South  from  the  call  for  troops 
to  the  close  of  the  war. 

3.  Granted  the  right  of  secession  from  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment, it  would  seem  that  a  Southern  State  had  an  equal  right  to 
secede  from  the  Confederacy,  or  to  treat  separately  for  peace, 
although  whether  it  would  have  been  wise  to  do  so  is,  of  course, 
an  open  question. 

4.  That  there  was  deep  and  widespread  dissatisfaction  with 
the  war  is  evident.  That  there  was  a  strong  undercurrent  for  the 
Union  seems  probable.  Either  side  may  admire  the  consistent 
course  of  action  of  one  whose  fundamental  belief  differs  from 
his,  but  who  is  loyal  to  the  truth  as  he  believes  it.  As  with  the 
loyalists  in  the  Revolutionary  War,  the  Union  element  in  the 
Civil  War  may  be  accorded  honesty  of  conviction  and  a  right  to 
their  opinion.  Any  other  course  would  strike  at  the  basis  of 
the  glory  of  North  Carolina's  past,  whose  foundation  is  the 
democratic  doctrine  of  the  right  of  the  people  to  self-govern- 
ment and  to  self-expression  of  thought. 

5.  Of  a  State  with  such  an  undercurrent  of  faction  that 
could  subordinate  personal  feeling  and  with  one  hundred  and 
fifteen  thousand  voters  send  into  the  field  one  hundred  and 
twenty-five  thousand  (125,000)  troops,  one  can  only  say,  as 
Daniel  Webster  did  of  his  own  State  years  ago :  She  needs  no 
encomium.  There  she  is.  Behold  her,  and  judge  for  your- 
selves. 


A 


3 


SB     -   j«;  K 


■■p 


UNIVERSITY  OF  N.C.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


00032721966 

FOR  USE  ONLY  IN 
THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  COLLECTION 


THIS  ITEM  MAY  NOT  BE  COP  ;rri 
ON  THE  SELF-SERVICE  CO.  il 


